Essential cellular modules for the proliferation of the primitive cell     

Koichi Higashi  Yoshikazu Kawai  Tomoya Baba  Ken Kurokawa  Taku Oshima 《地学前缘(英文版)》2018,9(4):1155-1161

Bacteria appeared early in the evolution of cellular life on planet Earth, and therefore the universally essential genes or biological pathways found across bacterial domains may represent fundamental genetic or cellular systems used in early life. The essential genes and the minimal gene set required to support bacterial life have recently been experimentally and computationally identified. It is, however,still hard to estimate the ancient genes present in primitive cells compared to the essential genes in contemporary bacteria, because we do not know how ancestral primitive cells lived and proliferated, and therefore cannot directly evaluate the essentiality of the genes in ancestral primitive cells. The cell wall is normally essential for bacterial proliferation and cellular division of walled bacterial cells is normally highly controlled by the essential FtsZ cell division machinery. But, bacteria are capable of reverting to their cell wall deficient ancestral form, called the "L-form". Unlike "normal" cells, L-forms divide by a simple physical mechanism based on the effects of membrane dynamics, suggesting a mode of primitive proliferation before the appearance of the cell wall. In this review, we summarize the experimental and computational investigations of minimal gene sets and discuss the minimal cellular modules required to support the proliferation of primitive cells, based on L-form proliferation.  相似文献   

Vertical vibration isolator having piecewise‐constant restoring force     

Yoshikazu Araki  Takehiko Asai  Takeshi Masui 《地震工程与结构动力学》2009,38(13):1505-1523

We present a vertical vibration isolator having a piecewise‐constant restoring force, which belongs to a class of passive and nonlinear vibration isolators. In vertical vibration isolation, direct use of low‐stiffness elements leads to unacceptably large deformations due to self‐weight. To overcome the difficulty, we apply a combination of constant‐force springs, each of which sustains a constant load regardless of its stretch. By arranging the constant‐force springs, so that the isolator has a piecewise‐constant restoring force, we alleviate the problem of the excessive deformation caused by self‐weight, provide stability at the static equilibrium state along with the self‐centering capability, and realize a large stroke while keeping the mechanism simple and compact. Further, we attempt to limit the response acceleration within a tolerance regardless of the frequency spectrum and the magnitude of earthquake ground motions. We demonstrate the effectiveness of the present isolator through shaking table tests and numerical simulations. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.  相似文献   

Regionality and seasonality of submesoscale and mesoscale turbulence in the North Pacific Ocean   总被引：1，自引：0，他引：1  

Hideharu Sasaki  Patrice Klein  Yoshikazu Sasai  Bo Qiu 《Ocean Dynamics》2017,67(9):1195-1216

The kinetic energy (KE) seasonality has been revealed by satellite altimeters in many oceanic regions. Question about the mechanisms that trigger this seasonality is still challenging. We address this question through the comparison of two numerical simulations. The first one, with a 1/10° horizontal grid spacing, 54 vertical levels, represents dynamics of physical scales larger than 50 km. The second one, with a 1/30° grid spacing, 100 vertical levels, takes into account the dynamics of physical scales down to 16 km. Comparison clearly emphasizes in the whole North Pacific Ocean, not only a significant KE increase by a factor up to three, but also the emergence of seasonal variability when the scale range 16–50 km (called submesoscales in this study) is taken into account. But the mechanisms explaining these KE changes display strong regional contrasts. In high KE regions, such the Kuroshio Extension and the western and eastern subtropics, frontal mixed-layer instabilities appear to be the main mechanism for the emergence of submesoscales in winter. Subsequent inverse kinetic energy cascade leads to the KE seasonality of larger scales. In other regions, in particular in subarctic regions, results suggest that the KE seasonality is principally produced by larger-scale instabilities with typical scales of 100 km and not so much by smaller-scale mixed-layer instabilities. Using arguments from geostrophic turbulence, the submesoscale impact in these regions is assumed to strengthen mesoscale eddies that become more coherent and not quickly dissipated, leading to a KE increase.  相似文献   

The brightest asymptotic giant branch stars in the Leo I dwarf spheroidal galaxy     

John Menzies  Michael Feast  Toshihiko Tanabé  Patricia Whitelock  Yoshikazu Nakada 《Monthly notices of the Royal Astronomical Society》2002,335(4):923-927

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Pulsation at the tip of the first giant branch?     

Yoshifusa Ita  Toshihiko Tanabé  Noriyuki Matsunaga  Yasushi Nakajima  Chie Nagashima  Takahiro Nagayama  Daisuke Kato  Mikio Kurita  Tetsuya Nagata  Shuji Sato  Motohide Tamura  Hidehiko Nakaya  Yoshikazu Nakada 《Monthly notices of the Royal Astronomical Society》2002,337(3):L31-L34

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Variable stars in the Magellanic Clouds: results from OGLE and SIRIUS     

Yoshifusa Ita  Toshihiko Tanabé  Noriyuki Matsunaga  Yasushi Nakajima  Chie Nagashima  Takahiro Nagayama  Daisuke Kato  Mikio Kurita  Tetsuya Nagata  Shuji Sato  Motohide Tamura  Hidehiko Nakaya  Yoshikazu Nakada 《Monthly notices of the Royal Astronomical Society》2004,347(3):720-728

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Variability of the Sea Surface Salinity (SSS) in the Western Tropical Pacific: On the Ability of an OGCM to Simulate the SSS, and on the Sampling of an Operating Merchant Ship SSS Network     

Mansour Ioualalen  Yoshinobu Wakata  Yoshikazu Kawahara  Yves Gouriou  David Varillon 《Journal of Oceanography》2003,59(1):105-111

The sea surface salinity (SSS) derived from a network developed at Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD/Nouméa) has been analyzed during the period 1995–1998 in the tropical western Pacific. The measurements were made with thermosalinographs installed on merchant ships selected for their regularity and routes. The western tropical Pacific was sampled mainly along three regular routes across the equator leading to an average of a one month frequency. We analyze here how such a network can be efficient in monitoring the SSS at time scales longer than one month. For this purpose we have used results derived from the Princeton Ocean Model (POM) which is forced by the surface flux of National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP) reanalysis data. The interannual variability of the simulated SSS exhibits very similar features to (sub-sampled) observations despite its being weakly damped to a climatology in order to avoid biases. Even smaller time scale phenomena can be simulated, like the erosion/reconstruction of the region composed of low density waters lying within the Pacific warm pool. The agreement between the observational data and the simulations indicate that the network sampling is sufficient to monitor the SSS variability of the western tropical Pacific from three-month to interannual time scales. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.  相似文献   

Biological organic carbon export estimated from the annual carbon budget observed in the surface waters of the western subarctic and subtropical North Pacific Ocean from 2004 to 2013     

Masahide Wakita  Makio C. Honda  Kazuhiko Matsumoto  Tetsuichi Fujiki  Hajime Kawakami  Sayaka Yasunaka  Yoshikazu Sasai  Chiho Sukigara  Mario Uchimiya  Minoru Kitamura  Toru Kobari  Yoshihisa Mino  Akira Nagano  Shuichi Watanabe  Toshiro Saino 《Journal of Oceanography》2016,72(5):665-685

The annual flux of biologically produced organic carbon from surface waters is equivalent to annual net community production (NCP) at a steady state and equals the export of particulate and dissolved organic carbon (POC and DOC, respectively) to the ocean interior. NCP was estimated from carbon budgets of salinity-normalized dissolved inorganic carbon (nDIC) inventories at two time-series stations in the western subarctic (K2) and subtropical (S1) North Pacific Ocean. By using quasi-monthly biogeochemical observations from 2004 to 2013, monthly mean nDIC inventories were integrated from the surface to the annual maximum mixed layer depth and corrected for changes due to net air–sea CO₂ exchange, net CaCO₃ production, vertical diffusion from the upper thermocline, and horizontal advection. The annual organic carbon flux at K2 (1.49 ± 0.42 mol m^?2 year^?1) was lower than S1 (2.81 ± 0.53 mol m^?2 year^?1) (p < 0.001 based on t test). These fluxes consist of three components: vertically exported POC fluxes (K2: 1.43 mol m^?2 year^?1; S1: 2.49 mol m^?2 year^?1), vertical diffusive DOC fluxes (K2: 0.03 mol m^?2 year^?1; S1: 0.25 mol m^?2 year^?1), and suspended POC fluxes (K2: 0.03 mol m^?2 year^?1; S1: 0.07 mol m^?2 year^?1). The estimated POC export flux at K2 was comparable to the sum of the POC flux observed with drifting sediment traps and active carbon flux exported by migrating zooplankton. The export fluxes at both stations were higher than those reported at other time-series sites (ALOHA, the Bermuda Atlantic Time-series Study, and Ocean Station Papa).  相似文献   

Underground storage of carbon dioxide in depleted natural gas reservoirs and in useless aquifers     

Hitoshi Koide  Yoshiyuki Tazaki  Yoshikazu Noguchi  Masaki Iijima  Kazuitsu Ito  Yuji Shindo 《Engineering Geology》1993,34(3-4):175-179

Depleted reservoirs of natural gas and petroleum can provide excellent traps for carbon dioxide. Deep aquifers, which are not used due to high salinity, can host larger amount of the carbon dioxide under their high formation pressure than natural gas and oir reservoirs. Small fraction of aquifers in sedimentary basins in the world are enough to host about 87 gigaton-C of carbon dioxide.

A preliminary technical and economical survey on the carbon dioxide injection system suggests that the energy requirement for carbon dioxide injection into subterranean aquifers is about 269 kWh/ton-C and that the investment and operation costs for system are 79 $/ton-C. By our preliminary cost estimation in Japan, the CO₂-emission-free electricity generation may become possible with a cost increase of 35% for natural-gas-fired power station, and of 60% for coal-fired-power station.  相似文献   

Effects of cyclonic mesoscale eddies on the marine ecosystem in the Kuroshio Extension region using an eddy-resolving coupled physical-biological model   总被引：2，自引：0，他引：2  

Yoshikazu Sasai  Kelvin J. Richards  Akio Ishida  Hideharu Sasaki 《Ocean Dynamics》2010,60(3):693-704

Effects of mesoscale eddies on the marine ecosystem in the Kuroshio Extension (KE) region are investigated using an eddy-resolving coupled physical-biological model. The model captures the seasonal and intra-seasonal variability of chlorophyll distribution associated with the mesoscale eddies, front variability, Kuroshio meanders, and upwelling. The model also reproduces the observed interannual variability of sea surface height anomaly (SSHA) in the KE region along a zonal band of 32–34°N from 2002 to 2006. The distribution of high surface chlorophyll corresponds to low SSHA. Cyclonic eddies are found to detach from the KE jet near 150°E and 158°E and propagate westward. The westward propagating cyclonic eddies lift the nutrient-rich thermocline into the euphotic zone and maintain high levels of chlorophyll in summer. In the subsurface layer, the pattern in chlorophyll is influenced by both lateral and vertical advection. In winter, convection inside the eddy entrains high levels of nutrients into the mixed layer, increasing production, and resulting in high chlorophyll concentration throughout the surface mixed layer. There is significant interannual variability in both the cyclonic eddy activity and the surface phytoplankton bloom south of the KE jet, although whether or not there is a causal link is unclear.  相似文献